In a late Monday evening surprise development, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court called upon rival parties in the much-debated Ayodhya case to explore possibilities of a last-minute amicable settlement on the vexed issue.
"When lakhs of Muslims will assemble at the Eidgah on Saturday for the Eid namaz , they will also pray for peace and communal harmony across the country after the special high court bench declares its judgement in the long-pending Ayodhya case", Lucknow's Naib Imam and head of the city's oldest Islamic seminary, Firangi Mahal said on Friday.
With the judgment in the Ayodhya court case just round the corner, the Bhartiya Janata Party is striving to raise the pitch on the controversial issue. This was amply demonstrated at the party's two-day long state executive meet that concluded in Lucknow on Sunday.Spelling it out in the valedictory address, amidst reverberating cries of Jai Shree Ram, former national BJP president Rajnath Singh declared, "The Ayodhya temple is bound to be a reality -- come what may."
The Uttar Pradesh government has urged the Union Home ministry to provide 400 companies of central paramilitary forces in order to tackle the fallout of the much-awaited verdict in the Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit.
One labourer died while five were injured when a freshly dug trench caved at a government project in Lucknow. After nearly three hours of the incident, the district administration blamed the accident on a private contractor.
The Uttar Pradesh government has not named any person in the FIR lodged in connection with the deaths of four infants after a routine immunisation drive on the outskirts of Lucknow on Saturday.The state government has already suspended at least half a dozen officials of the health and family welfare departments. These include a medical officer and the paramedical staff who were carrying out the routine vaccination against measles, TB and vitamin A deficiency in Mohanlalganj.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government by surprise when he visited Tappal in Aligarh, the epicenter of the three-week old agitation by local farmers, on Saturday evening.The farmers have been demanding a substantial enhancement in the compensation offered to them for their land, which the state government needs to acquire to build the 165-km Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway.The Gandhi scion first visited Tappal.
Four children died during a routine vaccination drive in three different villages of Mohanlalganj area on the outskirts of Lucknow on Saturday."Minutes after being administered doses for prevention of measles, tuberculosis and Vitamin A deficiency, these children developed a strange kind of sickness. By the time they were rushed to the nearest hospital, they were dead," said District Magistrate Anil Kumar Sagar.
Contrary to popular belief that he would infuse new life into the agitation of farmers, demanding higher compensation in lieu of their land acquired for building the Noida-Agra Yamuna Expressway, the arrival of Bharatiya Kisan Union supremo Mahendra Singh Tikait in Aligarh has failed to make any impact on the gradually waning demonstration.
The farmers of Aligarh, Mathura and Agra have formed a joint action committee to continue their agitation to seek an enhancement in the compensation given to them for the land acquired by the Mayawati government to build the 165-km long Noida - Agra Yamuna Expressway.They also reportedly decided to hand over the leadership of the agitation to powerful Bhartiya Kisan Union chief Mahendra Singh Tikait. The committee has already extended an invitation to Tikait.
The bench comprising Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice Rituraj Awasthi on Wednesday stayed the Mayawati government's notification of July 1, whereby Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar district had come into being.
While charges against top Bharatiya Janata Party and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders including Lal Krishna Advani, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar were already dropped by the high court, the most prominent among those who were on the firing line was former Faizabad district magistrate R N Srivastava and mafia don turned BJP member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Saran Singh
Even after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's special envoy Shashank Shekhar Singh struck a midnight deal with protesting farmers in Aligarh, sharp divisions have developed among the agitators on the issue of enhanced compensation for their land acquired to build the Noida-Agra Yamuna expressway.
Top Uttar Pradesh bureaucrat Shashank Shekhar Singh, who was sent by Chief Minister Mayawati to Aligarh, has managed to defuse the crisis that erupted there after three agitating farmers were killed in firing by policemen on August 15. The farmers were protesting against the inadequate compensation for agricultural land acquired to build the high-speed Yamuna Expressway between Noida and Agra.
With the opposition led by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav getting belligerent over the firing on farmers protesting against inadequate compensation for land acquired for the ambitious Yamuna Expressway project, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has got into a damage control mode.
Uttar Pradesh cops opened fire in Tappal village of Aligarh district on Saturday night on farmers protesting against inadequate compensation given to them for acquisition of their land for building the much talked about 165-km long Yamuna Expressway between Noida and Agra.
Smelling a major scam in the recent sale of four sugar mills by the Uttar Pradesh government, the Congress on Thursday accused Chief Minister Mayawati of large-scale bungling and manipulation in palming off the mills to handpicked buyers.
Having finally acquired some prominence in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), recently nominated party national secretary Varun Gandhi landed in Lucknow on Wednesday afternoon, only to give sermons to not just party workers, but both colleagues as well as seniors.
Unfazed by the criticism against "overspending" on parks, statues and memorials, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has once again allocated nearly Rs 500 crore towards her dream projects in the Rs 5,461 crore supplementary budget, which was tabled before the state assembly on Tuesday.
A local court in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, has directed the police to register a criminal case against five ministers (of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party) and five other persons on account of their association with a monthly journal that carried an allegedly blasphemous article in its May issue.
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